Renovation, staffing changes to mark 2007-2008 school year

Thousands of Santa Fe kids will get more than just new clothes and school supplies when they go back to school this year.

Many of them will return to find new faces in their principals’ offices, while others might notice something different about their school buildings.

New faces

Linda Bessett, a former administrator in Zuni, takes the reins at Wood Gormley Elementary School. She replaces Sharon Doye, who retired after last school year.

Bill Beacham, principal at Acequia Madre Elementary, isn’t new to the district, but he will be new to students at Alvord Elementary. The school’s former principal, Betsy

Ellvinger, retired this summer, and district officials asked Beacham to do double duty at Acequia and Alvord.

At Ortiz Middle School, Denine Mares takes over for Margo Shirley, who decided to go back to the classroom this year. Mares shared principal duties with Shirley last year and was Shirley’s assistant before that. She will be joined by Karen Webb, the new assistant principal.

Students at E.J. Martinez Elementary already know Nancy Olivares. She served as interim principal last spring after Andrea Tasan was put in charge of the district’s

federal program. Olivares was officially named principal around the end of the school year, so this will be her first full year at the school.

And then there’s Santa Fe High. The school has gone through more than half a dozen principals in the past dozen or so years. Dan Webb said he wants to stick around a little longer than his predecessors. Webb was principal at Los Lunas High School last year. Before that, he spent the majority of his career in California schools.

Two schools, Capital High School and Kaune Elementary, still don’t have a principal. Darlene Ulibarri announced two weeks ago that she was leaving Capital to be assistant superintendent in Pecos. The district is still trying to find her replacement.

Lynn Vanderlinden left Kaune after she was hired to be the new testing director for the district a few weeks ago.

District officials also haven’t named her successor.

Two private schools also will have new principals this year.

Ray Griffin left Desert Academy at the end of the school year. Terry Passalacqua, a long time teacher at the school, is serving as interim principal.

At St.Michael’s High School, Valerie Johnson takes over for Billy Armijo, who resigned after last school year.

Johnson has more than 20 years of experience in education, the last six as principal of Good Shepherd Catholic School in Garland, Texas.

New places

While it wasn’t torn to the ground like Tesuque Elementary was, Nava Elementary will probably look more different this year than any other school in the district, aside from Tesuque, which won’t be complete until November.

Crews have been working all summer at Nava to clear out and renovate classrooms and halls. There will be new flooring, new paint and new lights, among other changes, “(Students) are going to see a fresh new face to Nava Elementary,” said Mike Harris of Harris Consultants, the company that manages the district’s construction projects.

But, like many large summer projects, there is a chance it won’t be done by the time school starts. Harris said he’s optimistic about completing the project on time, but Deputy Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez has a couple of backup plans just in case construction isn’t done. Nava students might spend a few weeks at either DeVargas Middle School or the old Academy for Technology and the Classics campus, near the Genoveva Chavez Community Center.

Capital High began the first round of a large project this summer. Students will return to find renovated bathrooms — something that was supposed to happen last summer but didn’t — as well as newly remodeled classrooms for culinary arts and life skills.

The school’s science labs are also scheduled for remodeling.Work on those will continue throughout the year, and labs will take place in portable buildings.

In what seems like a never-ending construction project, Agua Fría Elementary also was the recipient of more work this summer.

The school had major renovations done last summer, but not all of the work was up to par, and district officials brought in new crews to fix the problems.

Among the innumerable changes to Agua Fría was the relocation of a few obstructive heating and cooling ducts and removal of unsightly wire trays in classrooms. The full project will run throughout the school year.

Other summer construction includes a myriad of smaller projects, including kitchen upgrades at Gonzales Elementary and the completion of long-running projects at Capshaw Middle and Chaparral Elementary.

The district’s general services department also kept busy with smaller projects.

Jim Romero, the department’s director, said he and his crews worked on about 600 work orders this summer, ranging from painting gyms to hanging coat racks.

Kindergarten kick-off

Kindergarten is starting off a bit differently this school year, according to Superintendent Leslie Carpenter.

In a letter to kindergarten parents, Carpenter announced a Kindergarten Kick-Off Program to help children start off on the right foot.

The kick-off will allow parents to meet their child’s teacher and help children become familiar with their new setting before actually getting started with the school year.

Kindergartners will start school Aug. 30, allowing the 27th, 28th and 29th — when other students already have started school — for teachers to meet individually with parents.

Teachers will be contacting parents during the week of Aug. 20 to arrange conference times. Teachers also will use the early meeting time to conduct early childhood assessments and screenings related to each child’s development and literacy skills.